A devastated mother is calling for the meningococcal B vaccine to be made available to all children and teenagers, after her 16-year-old son died suddenly last week.
Melbourne mum Norliah Syer-Peterson said her son Levi fell ill with what appeared to be gastro-like symptoms on Tuesday, September 23, before his condition deteriorated rapidly.
Levi, who was a Year 10 student at St Francis Xavier College in Beaconsfield, appeared perfectly happy and healthy in the morning, his mother told 9news.com.au.
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"I had dropped him off to do some work with my brother, who is a removalist," Syer-Peterson said.
"We were joking around, and we were talking about how we were going to have a mum and son fun day during the holidays."
However, when Levi came home that afternoon, he complained of having a stiff neck.
"He was in the truck, and he said he fell asleep, and that's not unusual to get a stiff neck if you're lying weirdly in a truck," Syer-Peterson said.
Levi's mother said she gave him some water and ran him a bath.
"He refused to eat, and he eats like 10,000 meals a day, so that was strange," she added.
Levi told his mother that he felt nauseous, so she gave him a bucket and he went to bed.
Hours later, the family was woken at around 1.30am by a loud banging sound.
Levi was vomiting in the bathroom.
"He was delirious, and the deliriousness was concerning," Syer-Peterson said
"He was just mumbling stuff and talking about a person he doesn't even know."
Now alarmed, Syer-Peterson called triple zero and, when paramedics arrived, they immediately administered antibiotics.
"They said, 'It looks like he's got an infection.' But then he started complaining about having a sore leg, and they were trying to get fluids into him," his mother said, adding Levi had a temperature of 41 degrees.
"He said, 'Am I going to die', and we all said, 'No, no, no.'"
The paramedics rushed him to the intensive care unit at Monash Children's Hospital.
"He went straight into the ICU unit. There were probably 40 professionals in there working on him, doctors, nurses, people monitoring him.
"It was full on, like something out of a nightmare movie."
Levi developed purple spots all over his skin, and then his heart stopped.
The much-loved teen died at around 7.30am last Wednesday, less than 24 hours after he first fell ill.
Syer-Peterson said her son's sudden death had left the family reeling.
"He was just the most gentle, kind, loving, sweet, beautiful boy," she said of her son.
"He used to pray a lot for people. He loved basketball, and he played netball with one of his girlfriends."
Levi had just gotten his learner driver's licence and had been busy making plans for the year ahead, his mother said.
"He had braces on that he was going to get off later this year. He was doing his deb next year, in March," she said.
Tests have confirmed Levi died of sepsis caused by meningococcal B bacteria.
Like most Year 10 students in Victoria, Levi received a free meningococcal vaccine at school, which covers strains A, C, W and Y.
However, meningococcal B requires a separate vaccine, which is only included in the National Immunisation Program for at-risk groups, such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants.
After lobbying by medical experts and advocates, some Australian states – Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory – have chosen to fund their own meningococcal B vaccination programs to make the vaccines free for all children and teens.
However, Victoria, NSW, the ACT and Tasmania are yet to do so.
Syer-Peterson said she was now making it her mission to lobby for meningococcal B vaccines to be made available free of charge.
"I would say that it is ridiculous that this is not funded. People, normal Australians, can't afford to pay for it," she said, adding that it never even occurred to her to get Levi the extra vaccination.
The Australian Technical Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), which advises the health minister on the National Immunisation Program, recommended the meningococcal B vaccine be given to infants, young children and adolescents in 2014.
A Department of Health spokesperson told 9news.com.au the inclusion of any vaccine on the federal program was contingent on a positive recommendation from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC), based on an assessment of clinical and cost-effectiveness.
"To date, the PBAC has not received an application from pharmaceutical companies seeking expanded eligibility for meningococcal B vaccine," the spokesperson said.
There have been 13 cases of meningococcal B in Victoria so far this year.
A spokesperson for Victoria's Health Department said: "The Chief Health Officer monitors the prevalence of meningococcal cases in Victoria, which informs their independent health advice on vaccination settings.
"The Commonwealth's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee does not currently recommend a meningococcal B vaccine for the broader community."
